| Buddleja globosa | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Magnoliophyta |
| Class: | Magnoliopsida |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Buddlejaceae |
| Genus: | Buddleja |
| Species: | B. globosa |
| Binomial name | |
| Buddleja globosa Hope |
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| Synonyms | |
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Buddleja globosa, also known as the Orange Ball Buddleja, is a species endemic to Chile and Argentina, where it grows in dry and moist forest, from sea level to 2,000 m.[1] The species was first described and named by Hope in 1782 [2]
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B. globosa is a large shrub < 5 m tall, with grey fissured bark. The young branches are subquadrangular and tomentose, bearing sessile or subsessile lanceolate or elliptic leaves 5 - 15 cm long by 2 - 6 cm wide, glabrescent and bullate above and tomentose below. The deep-yellow to orange leafy-bracted inflorescences comprise one terminal and < 7 pairs of pedunculate globose heads, 1.2 - 2.8 cm in diameter, each with 30 - 50 flowers, heavily honey-scented.[1]. Flowers are hermaphrodite with both male and female parts, unlike many Buddlejas of the Americas which are often dioecious.
B. globosa was first introduced to the UK from Chile in 1774, and is now commonly grown as an ornamental and landscape shrub in North America and Europe, proving fairly frost-hardy in the UK. Unlike B. davidii, introduced over a century later, B. globosa is not invasive, owing to its dioecious nature, and wingless seeds.[1]
Folk medicine attributes to B. globosa wound healing properties, and the infusion of the leaves is used topically for the treatment or wounds, burns and external and internal ulcers. Chemical studies of this species have allowed to isolate glycosidic flavonoids (Marín et al., 1979), phenylethanoids including verbascoside[3], iridoids (Houghton y Hikino, 1989), triterpenoids (López et al., 1979), di and sesquiterpenoids (Houghton et al., 1996; Liao et al., 1999).
B. globosa was hybridized with B. davidii 'Magnifica' by Van de Weyer at his nursery at Corfe, England, during the First World War. Named × weyeriana, the hybrid remains unique as a cross between Asiatic and American species. There are popular cultivars of this cross, notably 'Sungold', many held as part of the NCCPG national collection at Longstock Park Nursery near Stockbridge, Hampshire.[1]